China’s old-age pension for the retired is expected to rise by 10 percent this year according to the Economic Information Daily.

China has raised the old-age pension for 11 consecutive years with an annual increase of 10 percent. It is analyzed that the potential 12th rise will directly benefit 80 million retired people.

Jan.5,2016

A total of 50, 000 rural low-income residents in Beijing received the same allowances with urban recipients thanks to the integration of urban and rural subsistence allowance standards.

In recent years, Beijing has been reducing the subsidy gap between rural and urban recipients. From 2011 to 2015, the subsidy standard for each urban resident has risen from 480 yuan to 710 yuan per month and from 300 yuan to 710 yuan for rural residents.

Jan.6,2016

The household registration reform holds the key to China’s urbanization drive, said Ni Hong, Deputy Minister of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China (MOHURD) at a seminar on Jan.4,2016.

Jan.7,2016

Top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng has called for cities to be more receptive to ethnic minorities in a written instruction to a two-day conference on urban ethnic affairs, which ended on Jan.6,2016.

Yu, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee, said urban ethnic affairs must be managed in accordance with the law and focus on protecting the legal interests of all and providing services to floating ethnic minority populations.

Jan.7,2016

86.9 percent of urban and rural residents in China have confidence in the ongoing anti-corruption campaign, according to a blue book released by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing on Jan.5,2016.

The book, China’s Combating Corruption and Building a Clean Government Report No.5, analyzed from six aspects China’s practice and achievements in combating corruption in 2015. It is the fifth blue book on this topic by the CASS.

Jan.8,2016

Around 1.74 million people in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have risen above the poverty line in the past five years, according to new official data.

Jan.8,2016

Beijing municipality will take a series of new measures to protect disabled people, according to a newly approved guideline.

Jan.11,2016

Buddhism contributes the most to charity among China’s five major religions, according to the China Religion Survey 2015(CRS) released by the Renmin University of China (RUC) in July 2015.

Jan.12,2016

China's two-child policy is expected to lead to more than 30 million people joining the work force by 2050 helping curb a looming shortage, according to a senior family planning official.

Jan.12,2016

Beijing municipality published its Population and Family Planning Amendment (draft) to solicit public opinion on January 8, 2016, which plans to grant 15 days’ paternity leave to husbands.

Maternity leave for female employees will maintain at 128 days including 98 days of paid maternity leave and 30 days as a bonus.

Jan.13,2016

Medical insurance programs for China's rural residents and urban unemployed will be merged into a single basic health insurance plan to improve equality and efficiency, according to a notice issued on Tuesday by the State Council, or China's cabinet.

Jan.13,2016

China is gaining ground to overcome corruption, President Xi Jinping said at an anti-graft meeting on Jan.12,2016, urging confidence in the campaign.

Jan.13,2016

China will firmly ban the exploration of inferior coal and limit its production, sales and imports in order to control air pollution and protect the environment, said Lian Weiliang, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission (SDPC).

China’s coal industry will turn to clean and renewable use of energy, said Lian at the 2016 China Coal Trade Conference.

Jan.14,2016

The Shanghai municipal government has handed out significantly more permanent residence permits to expats since loosening its visa policies in July.

A total of 715 residence permits were issued to expats in the city between July and December, up from 60 during the same period in 2014.

Jan.14,2016

“A total of 7 million Han Chinese have moved to Tibet since 1950. However, they are having a hard time reproducing in high-altitude regions due to gene reasons,” said an article issued on the website of the Dalai group on January 2, 2016.

With an intention of getting rid of Han people in Tibet, the Dalai group said Han people were impossible to reproduce in Tibet.

However, if all Han people were out of Tibet as Dalai said, it would be a catastrophe to a multinational country like ours, said Zhu Weiqun, Director of the Ethnic and Religious Committee of the CPPCC, China’s top political advisory body.

In fact, Tibetans and other ethnic groups have lived and thrived on the Qinghai—Tibet Plateau since ancient times.

Jan.15,2016

Chinese people are almost twice as optimistic about the world as those from other countries, while Britons are the fifth most pessimistic, according to a recent survey.

Jan.15,2016

China is on a drive to register all its citizens, including those born illegally under the one-child policy, so they qualify for the "hukou" papers that allow access to social welfare.

Jan.18,2016

Several Xinjiangers living overseas have been invited to attend the 3rd session of the 11th CPPCC Xinjiang Committee on January 14th , 2016.

Jan. 19, 2016

China launched an online database amid concerns about fake living Buddhas to help followers of Tibetan Buddhism to distinguish the real ones from the fake on January 18, 2016.

Jan.20,2016

China's Gini coefficient, an index of income inequality, stood at 0.462 in 2015, the lowest level in 12 years since 2003, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Jan.21,2016s

China is set to introduce a real-name registration system for migrant workers to better protect their rights in cases of salary cuts or pay defaults, according to a document issued by the State Council.

Jan.21,2016

The 14th Dalai Lama strained to expand his influence in 2015. Taking advantage of his 80th birthday, he held a series of celebrations, catching the attention of the world.

He tried to pay visits to a number of countries, yet got refused by most of them. He kept flip-flopping on the reincarnation issue to draw global attention.

However, politicians in European countries and US have been busy dealing with terrorism and refugee crisis. Economists have been focusing on the world poverty alleviation. Nobody have time to hear what he tried to say, not even running a risk of offending China.

Jan.22,2016

The Evaluation Report on China’s Judicial Civilization in 2015 was released by China University of Political Science and Law on Jan.20,2016.

Shanghai won the first place among twenty provinces, scoring 66.6 points out of 100 points, according to the report.

The average score is 64.5 points. Heilongjiang province was at the bottom with 62.8 points. Beijing ranked 13th with 64.3 points.

Jan.25,2016

China’s overall employment situation remained stable last year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) on January 22, 2016.

A total of 13.12 million urban jobs were created last year and the registered unemployment rate for urban residents remained at 4.05 percent, the data showed.

Jan.26,2016

China will learn from the “plea bargaining” mechanism to pilot the system of “showing leniency to those who plead guilty” in certain areas this year, according to a statement released at the central conference on political and legal work recently held in Beijing.

Jan.26,2016

A total of 4,815 complaints regarding the wages of migrant workers were referred to public security organs for further investigation in 2015, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Most concerned the nonpayment of wages and enforced pay cuts.

However, the problem of wage defaults "has been contained" since refusing to pay employees was made a crime under a 2011 amendment to the Criminal Law, ministry spokesman Li Zhong said during a news conference on Friday.

According to the latest figures, there are more than 274 million migrant workers in China and many have fallen victim to wage defaults due to the nature of their work.

Jan.26,2016

A total of 31,527 prisoners, most of whom were juveniles when they committed their crimes, have been released thanks to an amnesty deal, according to an official statement on Jan.25,2016.

Jan.27,2016

Chinese people’s basic livelihood kept improving last year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) on Jan.25,2016.

The cash subsidy standard for each urban resident reached 439 yuan per month last year, and 255 yuan for rural residents, the data showed.

Jan. 27,2016

The Chinese government published its first nuclear white paper on Jan.27,2016, detailing policies and measures to boost nuclear emergency preparedness and highlighting "a rational, coordinated and balanced" nuclear security approach.